How to Decide Whether You Should Get Your Ph.D. (6-Step Process that Anyone Can Use)

So basically there are so many subjective figures that one will either convince themselves to start a program by changing the numbers or convince themselves not to start a program by changing the numbers.

 

Some would disagree with this. How much time is actually required to get your PhD in 3 years? How about 4 years? 5 years? 6 years? And 7 years?

 

After performing your valuations, you should have other people review them with you. The goal is to arrive at a reasonable subjective valuation. For example, how important is snowboarding to you? Maybe it's not as important as you initially thought it was. Or maybe it's more important.

We look at valuing the factors rather than the end result. The formula provides the end result.

 

Well, weighed from a purely financial perspective, nobody should ever have kids because your kids are never going to give you back all the money you spent raising them. On the other hand, getting a PhD might make sense from a purely financial perspective because you might get a better-paying job based on your PhD and that increment of increased salary might over time yield you more money than you paid to get said PhD.

 

This model is purely about financial gain. It's about value. In order to determine value, though, we need to attach numbers to such "soft" benefits as personal satisfaction. The same analysis can be applied to having children.

This model is designed to get people to think about *ALL* costs and benefits, not just about the obvious financial costs and benefits.

If you give up a decent-paying job to pursue a PhD full-time for 5 years, then from a purely financial analysis, the benefits will probably not outweigh the costs. You just gave up 5 years of income. On top of that, you need to pay for tuition (unless you're funded) and living expenses (unless you get a stipend and can live on that). As for the benefits, you need to multiply the chances of getting your desired job by that job's salary. Then, you need to present-value (or future-value) discount the figures to account for the time value of money. I.e., the five years of income starting now is much better than the same income 10 years from now because you can take the income, invest it (whether in securities, a home, or less tangible activities), and gain a return.

 

I still have getting a Ph.D. in mind after I finish my Master of History, God willing. It is certainly a big undertaking but I see it as the ultimate academic prize.

The huge difference between my situation and many other people on this site is that I am in Australia where a full time Ph. D. for Australians and New Zealanders is my favourite price. That's right - free. My first preference is do mine on campus at the University of Queensland which is not far from me. UQ provides some financial support, office space, incredibly good library privileges and possibly work as a tutor to postgraduate research students.

I am doing my current degree by distance from the Univerity of New England which I like very much. UNE would provide many of the same benefits, including no fee, but you need to be there to take advantage of most of them. It would be much easier to work with UQ which is about a twenty minute bus ride away.

The posters are certainly right in that there are major costs in doing the Ph.D. but at least the strict financial cost here is much better because of the lack of tuition. We really are very fortunate.

 

I start mine next year at Bond and I get some spending money as well. We can forget how lucky we are in this country at times! I did my undergrad with Excelsior College and then two Masters (one with honours)with Charles Sturt.

 

I deliberately made my model of the child-rearing decision purely financial in order to show how ludicrous the purely financial model is. Just as personal satisfaction should weigh in in the child-rearing decision, personal satisfaction should weigh in in the decision to get a doctorate. Of course, it is not 100% impossible to recoup your money spent on child-rearing. Suppose you have a genius for a child. Suppose you invest $35,000 to help your 19-year-old genius start a computer company. Suppose you take 35% equity in the firm. Suppose the company is worth $1,000,000,000 by the time your kid is 30 years old. Then you sell your shares back to your kid for $350,000,000. But how likely is that to happen?

I should also add that, with distance learning, it is not necessary to give up a decent-paying job to get a doctorate.

 

You, sir, are a genius... And the manipulation will occur inversely with respect to the degree they have practical use for the degree in higher education teaching and research. Those who plan to "use" it (unnecessarily) out of higher education teaching and research, to pretend they know everything, will manipulate the figures and weights to justify and reinforce their narcissism. So postulated here...

 

With all the recent discussion on PhD programs, I figured that this thread needed a bump, if not a sticky.

 

i just thought i'd point out...that the work you put into THIS thread is similar to what many put into their working papers....i'm an econ girl at heart and with a little stats training, some polish, and some concrete data, you have yourself a paper already!

like bill said...there's an aspect that DL devotees sometimes forget in all of this---the actual subject itself. at the BA and sometimes MA level, the desire to have *any* degree is what gets people through it. while i'm sure no one tries to study something they hate, i'm also sure some folks have had to "settle" for what was available online/quick/easy/etc and go for it.

but when it comes to a phd, the pull should be more than "its available" and "its a phd" . there has to be a strong desire to study the subject at that high of a level, and to align your career with that subject. and if THAT desire is there, and is strong enough, you don't need any model, you just need a plan.

 

This is the best post on this subject that I have read in a long time. I like this answer and I don't buy into the return of investment idea; there's so much more to the motivation than that.